Qualitative methods

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Qualitative methods

• Caroline Green
• November 2007

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Quantitative and qualitative data

• What are the differences?
• Quantitative numerical data
• Qualitative - non-numerical data

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Qualitative data

• Non-numerical data, mostly in the form of
  meanings
• what people say
• pictorial e.g. graffiti
• content of stories, songs,myths
• uncategorized, unedited recordings of
  behaviour

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Qualitative approaches

• Protocol analysis (Ericcson and Simon
  (1980,1983,1993))
• Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss(1967),
  Strauss and Corbin(1990))
• Action research (Lewin(1946))
• Ethnography
• Feminist research
• Discourse analysis

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Protocol Analysis

• Verbal protocols recordings of what people say
  when carrying out a task under instructions to
  verbalise all thoughts.
• Used most in problem solving tasks to provide
  extra information about strategies etc

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Grounded theory

• Advocates research with no prior commitment to
  expectations.
• Theory emerges from repeated sampling of
  qualitative data from local circumstances in
  their social context

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Action Research

• Used when social change envisaged social change
  effected consequent changes observed.
• Tied to applied work context is participative

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Ethnography

• Used more in anthropology sociology
• Concentrates on field research of and within the
  lifestyle of the social group of interest.
• Strongly associated with intensive participant
  observation

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Feminist research

• Exposure of male bias in theory and research
• Aims at ultimately, a world free of male, or
  perhaps any oppression.
• Research tends to be action oriented with
  interventions aimed at some measure of increased
  awareness

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Discourse analysis

• Discourse constructs our social world
• Looks at what people do with their talk and the
  social actions performed with speech

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Positions in the qualitative-quantitative debate

• No qualitative data
• Qualitative data convert to quantitative data
• Qualitative data can support quantitative
  findings
• Qualitative and quantitative methods equal but
  different
• Quantitative methods only

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Hypothetico-deductive method
• vs
• Inductive analysis

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Reductionism
• vs
• Holism

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Positivism
• vs
• Constructivism relativism

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Knowledge facts gained from the world
• Vs
• Knowledge social construction

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Significance testing
• Vs
• Data gathering and analysis not separated

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Research on subjects population sample
• Vs
• Research with participants

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Structure and control elimination of extraneous
  variables
• Vs
• Flexibility look for all possible contributory
  information

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Numbers
• vs
• Human meanings in social contexts

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Laboratory or controlled environment
• vs
• Naturalistic

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Reliability tests
• vs
• Reliability no overall qualitative agreement

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Contrasting principles of the 2 approaches

• Validity tests
• vs
• Validity set of criteria

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Criteria for achieving validity in qualitative
research

• Trustworthiness and genuineness
• Triangulation
• Respondent validation
• Peer agreement
• Independent audit
• Internal coherence
• Reflexivity

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Practical issues in qualitative research

• Can be very time consuming to conduct
• Can take more of participants time compared to
  an experimental approach
• Analysis can be resource intensive

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Bibliography

• Richardson, J.T.E. (Ed).(1996) Handbook of
  Qualitative Research Methods for Psychology and
  the Social Sciences. Leicester BPS Books
• McQueen, R. and Knussen, C. (2006) Introduction
  to Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology.
  Harlow Prentice Hall. Chapter 12.
• Eysenck, M. (Ed.) (1998). Psychology an
  integrated approach. Harlow Addison Wesley
  Longman. Chapter 21.

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Web reference

• http//jan.ucc.nau.edu/mid/edr725/class/index.htm
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